What Would Jesus Do?

Every Christian at one point or another is faced with the crippling choice: to sin or not to sin? When every fibre of your being desires something, how do you reject it and run in the opposite direction? Is it possible?

As Christians we know that we are called to be holy and strive to be like Christ but my questions regarding my faith are always quite practical; yes I KNOW what I am meant to do but HOW do I actually go about doing it? Unfortunately, this post won’t hold any practical answers to the above questions (sorry, maybe next week) but I do hope it sheds further light upon the character of Jesus, the man we should all be aiming to be like every single day. Yesterday I was saying to my drama group (whom I adore!) that all we can know of Jesus (with absolute certainty) is revealed in the Bible -which is why it is crucial to study and absorb the Word. How can I say that I am Christian yet have no idea what the Bible says about Christ bar John 3:16? Can we truly know Christ if we avoid reading His words?

There was a phase during the 90’s where all the cool kids wore wristbands with “W.W.J.D” (What Would Jesus Do?) written across them. In every difficult situation you were to look at your wrist and think…well…”what would Jesus do?” Wrestling with sin is something we have to do every single day so thoughts alone concerning what Jesus could potentially/perhaps/maybe on a good day do in our situation may not be enough but reading the Bible means that we can know who Jesus is and what he actually did.

For Jesus is not some high priest who has no sympathy for our weaknesses and flaws. He has already been tested in every way that we are tested; but He emerged victorious, without failing God.

Hebrews 4:15

Before reading this, I knew that Jesus cared about me, loved me and understood me but I didn’t know that he once faced the same crippling decisions I face. Like Jesus, I long to please our Father in heaven but I often fall short because, well…I’m human. Even when I do my best not to sin, it usually happens at some point. This passage reveals that Jesus is not a stranger; he is not some distant, perfect being who has no idea what I, Joy, face on a day-to-day. Rather he is close, sympathetic and understanding. Jesus faced real issues! Of course, we know that he was killed but he was also persecuted and accused; tempted, hated, misunderstood, mistreated and betrayed.

Jesus knows how we feel and what we’ve faced and because of that, when we speak to him we shouldn’t hold back because we think he won’t understand our issues, instead we should be completely open, knowing that there is nothing we can ever face that Jesus will not understand.